Weekly Rounds: Preparing for Future Outbreaks, Creating a Pandemic Response Unit, and More

Here are 5 highlights from ICT^®’s wide-ranging coverage of the infection prevention and control world. Everything from interviews with known opinion leaders, to the news that infection preventionists and other health care professionals can use on their jobs.

Preparing for Future Viral Outbreaks in a Global Community

Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD, believes not enough is doing to prepare for future pandemics. What are her recommendations? Find out in this final installment of her interview with Infection Control Today^®.

Transforming a Pandemic Response Unit From an Inpatient Nursing Unit

With COVID-19 beginning to surge, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center needed to create a response unit from what had been an inpatient nursing unit. A recent study explains how this conversion was effective and can stand as an example for other facilities.

CDC: Vaccine-Derived Polio Is Circulating in the United States

With this declaration the United States is put on a list of countries circulating the viruses, specifically noted in Rockland County, NY, where the vaccination rate is low and surrounding areas.

Immunity Lessons From COVID-19: Natural Infection vs Vaccination

Investigators have learned invaluable lessons from 2 and a half years of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on human immunity. Is natural infection better for long-term protection against COVID-19 or is vaccination? What does the data say?

Hospital Leaders Respond to Public Reporting Health Care-Associated Infections Data

Some individuals believe health care-associated infections data believe should be more transparent that what hospitals provide. More frequently, the public has reported the information, sometimes incorrectly or deceptively. How does the hospital leadership react to the publicly-reported data?